The Old Church In The Heart Of Sapa Mountain

Coming to Sapa, tourists are attracted not only by the clear beauty of the mountains, hills and waterfalls, but also by the attractive ancient architecture of the stone church. This is really an interesting destination that you should not ignore when reaching to Sapa. Sapa stone church was built in the 1895, is the most integrity ancient architecture by French remaining in Sa Pa, Lao Cai...

Due to the fact that Sapa was a French retreat from the heat in Hanoi, a parish was started here in 1902. Right in the center of the town, the Sapa Church, which is also known as the Stone Church or the Holy Rosary Church, was built after a careful consideration of choosing the location as it's an important spiritual meaning for Catholics. The church was built by stone under the cross by Roman gothic architecture and the interior is decorated with lovely stained glass windows in a modern style that depict the life of Christ. With an area over 6000m2, it has enough rooms for the arrangement of the priest's house, animal house, house angel , the front yard, fences and garden.

Sa Pa Church situated on a prime location with the ham Rong mountain shield, front is flat, land, can develop more cultural works available for social activities. In particular, the Church in the center of the Sa Pa town, standing at four sides can be observed relics, along with two other buildings were also built by the French as the Main Villa (now the Hoang lien hotel) and the District Commissioners (now the headquarters of the Central tourist information) forms a triangle with the architecture separate French-style.

Nowadays, Sapa Stone Church is not only a religious destination of most of parishioners here as well as domestic and foreign tourists, but also a main site for holding many cultural traditional activities of the ethnic people here. In every Saturday evening, people usually organize a popular unique cultural activity often called “the love market”. In the quiet atmosphere of the evening in the highland, the sounds of the traditional instruments of the ethnic people such as flute, trumpet, lip lute, pan flute mix with the featured dances of the ethnic girls and guys. Especially, at Christmas, most parishioners also gather here to celebrate, pray, sing and dance. In addition, they also celebrate many interesting games and activities featuring the culture of the ethnic minority people.

If you get a chance to visit Sapa, don’t forget to look in the Stone Church, a spiritual, religious and cultural destination of Sapa Town in particular and of the northwest in general. The ancient beauty combined with the misty scenery of Sapa Town will pull back your footstep and bring you an indescribable feeling when leaving here. Don’t forget to join Sapa tours with us if you are willing to experience this!!